Must-have Android apps, according to Donovan Colbert

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With so many useful and entertaining mobile apps available on the market, we thought we'd ask our editors, contributor writers, and members what apps they prefer above the rest. In this particular gallery, Donovan Colbert (aka dcobert) highlights his favorite Android apps.

According to dcolbert, "Among social utilities, I use Facebook and Foursquare. Everyone should be familiar with Facebook – and frankly, the Android version is poor compared to the iOS version. It isn't updated very frequently and it just doesn’t work very well."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Foursquare

"Foursquare is among my favorite class of apps, multi-platform applications that exist, and work well, on Android, iOS, and other platforms (including the web-browser on your desktop, netbook or notebook PC).

"The image shows my FourSquare 'ME' tab. I've obscured personally identifiable information – but in real time I can 'check-in' to a location. That information is published to my Foursquare Friends' list.

I can also direct the feeds to Facebook and Twitter if I'm encouraging CyberStalkers. There are rewards for frequently Checking-in. If you've got the most check-ins at a site, you get a Mayorship. You can also unlock badges."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Foursquare Badges

"Here are my Foursquare Badges. 'Swarm' was checking in at a location where 50 other Foursquare users were also checked in at the same time – at Penn Station in NY City, NY. I don't remember how I got Bender and Crunked."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Games

"Games are not the strong suit of the Android platform. Among those listed here, 'Tower of Hanoi' is a staple, 'Quest!' is a good dungeon crawler, 'Trap!' is similar to the 80s arcade staple 'Qix!' and 'Tank Recon 3' is a great Battle Zone 3D FPS. I'm going to cover two these games here - Air Control Lite and The Great Land Grab."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Air Control Lite

"Air Control Lite is another iOS staple. It's a great game because it's simple, challenging, and has addictive game-play. Planes come on the screen, and you have to land them without crashing into each other. Sounds simple, right? This is my 'go-to' game when I am sitting in a waiting room or somewhere else where I have 10 or 15 minutes to kill but not enough time to get really absorbed in a complex game."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

The Great Land Grab

"In a previous blog, I lamented that being torn between the iOS iPad and the Android platform would result in me falling in love with some non-cross platform game that was unlikely to make the jump. The Great Land Grab is it.

"This game divides the globe up into rectangles that you can purchase. You can purchase the square you are in for the listed price or any adjacent square for 10x the price. Once you own a property, you get an hourly rent for it. But at any time some other varmint can come along and buy your property out from under you. I drive, my wife navigates, and we buy up land as we travel around.

"There's a lot more to it than this, and it's addictive and encourages long Sunday drives out into remote areas where you discover all kinds of new things about the area where you live. Android only, and no signs of it going to iOS."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Email apps

"The thing about Android OS is that there aren't a lot of business apps that are necessary. When it comes to mail, just about everything you could want is there. At least, that has been my experience.

"People with unique mail systems like Lotus or who rely heavily on calendaring and scheduling will find a variety of apps to meet their needs in the Android Market.

"In my Mail home-screen, you may notice I have Verizon Visual Voice mail, but it's $2.99 a month and not worth it. For me, there's only one additional app for communication that I require, and that is Google Voice."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Google Voice

"Google Voice is just another way by which Google intends to enslave us all and hook us up in vats of jelly to power their artificial world after the apocalypse – and like Cypher... just give me the blue pill and get it over with.

"Google Voice is free and makes Verizon Visual Voice Mail look like a lame money-grabbing piece of garbage published by a greedy, souless, corporate telcom giant. There are too many killer features of Google Voice to list. You can pick your own number in any area code (mine is a 916 Sac area code so my friends back home can call me without dialing an area code or LD charges), you can forward the number to any number of other phone numbers, you can dial from the web, and it will call your primary phone and connect you to the number you've dialed online. But the most killer features in my book are the visual transcription of incoming calls.

"As you can see in the image, it doesn't always do that good, and a lot depends on how clear the caller is speaking and how good their connection is. Most often though, the transcription is good enough to do the trick. When it isn't, you simply hit the play button below and you can listen to the recorded message.

"Google Voice is open to the public – but Apple denied the app, and using the web-based iOS app is a drag. Did I mention that it's free? Just sign the contract in your blood and get started."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Music

"This is my Music folder. We're going to focus on Pandora, Shazam, iMusic, and DoubleTwist. Music, the native music app on Android, is universally despised by the Android community, and for good reason (it sucks)."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Pandora

"Pandora is just what you would expect. You can create custom channels that determine your musical tastes and play customized radio over 3G or Wi-Fi.

"While they warn that heavy data use may occur, I know three people who use it as their primary source of music while driving, and none of them have exceeded the 5GB limit that Verizon currently enforces on data."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Shazam

"I recently mentioned Shazam as a magical and revolutionary app: 'Digital epiphany: We're spoiled with consumer technology.' You can open Shazam, touch the screen, let your Droid listen to an unknown song, and it will tell you who sings it, the name of the song, and provide links to Amazon to download it and YouTube to watch the video."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

iMusic

"iMusic is an alternative music player that will allow you to search for a song by name. It will generate a list of sites on the web that offer this song and allow you to download the song to play it locally or stream it over the Internet. Anyone downloading and using this app should be well aware of the current climate toward this kind of application."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

DoubleTwist

"DoubleTwist is like iTunes for the Android. It's actually a decent iTunes alternative for many iPods and other music devices as well. It has an integrated, much better music player, direct purchases from the Amazon music store, cover-art, and no restrictions on how you manage your music and other media files.

"If you took iTunes, removed Steve Jobs Orwellian death-grip on it, and made it massively cross platform so that it would return the power to the consumer – DoubleTwist is what you would have. Not available on iOS devices."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Utilities

"As an IT professional, my professional tool-set on my Android device consists mostly of cloud-based, multi-platform apps and power-user tools designed to give me more control over my Droid or to assist me in my professional duties."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

PdaNet

"PdaNet by Junefabrics is a modem-tethering application. At this point, I'm not sure how it violates Verizon terms of service, but none-the-less, the kings of greed claim that they can detect unauthorized modem-tethering and will cancel your account if you are caught using these kind of applications.

"At the very least, they can exist and Verizon can't just banish them from the market. No need to hide modem-tethering apps as flashlight apps in the Android marketplace.

"With PdaNet, you can hook up your Droid to your laptop via USB or Bluetooth, open up the client software there, click Enable, and ride the information super-highway like a lawless Hell's Angel, thumbing your nose at the man. When you get caught and they shut you down, switch to Sprint."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Antennas

"This app exists mostly so that Android fanboys like myself can humiliate dweebs with their brand new iPhone 4 by showing them *graphically* how good a signal we have and exactly where the tower is compared to our location. 'What, you only have 1 bar? There is a tower right over there. Maybe you just need to hold your phone differently. Weird.'

"In the image, I'm golfing with my boss and showing him that there is a cell tower right nearby the Country Club with a very strong signal. I'm not sure why his iPhone couldn't get a signal. I let him beat me at golf to help heal his hurt pride."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Bump

"Bump is a cross-platform app that transfers files and contact information by magic fairy dust between Androids and other Androids, and Androids and iPhones. You hold your phone in your fist, decide which files or contact information you want to transfer, and bump fists – the phones connect, and the information transfers right over. Go cellular pixies, go!"

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

ES File Explorer

"ES File Explorer is exactly what it sounds like - a File Explorer, which is something that's missing from the default Android platform. It will allow you to cruise around the file structure of your Droid and the SD card just like a Windows CE device, copy, rename, delete files, and otherwise potentially brick your phone. You know, use it like the *real* PC it actually is.

ES File Explorer LAN tab

Here is the LAN tab, attached to my freenas 1TB NAS drive. Pretty cool. Not only can I accidentally delete files on my phone with ES File Explorer, I can accidentally delete files on my network shares as well, all with the careless swipe of a finger.

"Who needs a phone that protects you from yourself? Real nerds have Android phones and DR-plan documents."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

ES File Explorer SD card

"And here is my SD card. There's just something comfortable about being able to manipulate files at the file system. This is a must-have app."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Evernote

"One of the strangest things is that Google Docs doesn't have an app and doesn't support mobile browsers very well – for iOS or Android. If it did, I'd be very happy. But since it doesn't, I use Evernote a lot more frequently.

"Evernote is a cross-platform, web-based application that allows you to take notes. I use it for capturing blog ideas, leaving myself messages, taking photos with information I want to get back to later and other similar tasks. I've even written a couple complete blogs using it on my iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard.

"The image shows the meat of Evernote. You can take a snapshot, upload a file, write a text note, or record an audio note - and then pick it up later from an iOS device or from a desktop by browsing to the Evernote site. Simple and effective."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

WiFi Analyzer

"The only serious work related tool I have on my Android is WiFi Analyzer. Mobile devices are great site security assessment devices, and WiFi Analyzer is probably the best app designed to assist with WiFi surveys I've ever used.

"WiFi Analyzer will give you graphical ratings of which channels are the best choice for your WiFi access point."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

WiFi Analyzer gauge

"Another WiFi Analyzer tab gives you a gauge that tells you the signal loss from your currently associated AP."

WiFi Analyzer options

WiFi analyzer channel graph

"Here's an example of the channel graph near my home, showing my AP in red and a neighbor's AP in blue, along with the signal strength of both and what channel range they're on.

"This tool is useful for determining if multiple devices are stepping on each other in channel range and otherwise fine-tuning your WiFi network for maximum efficiency and reliability."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

White Noise Lite

"If you do a lot of business travel, you've found yourself in a corner room between the stairway, elevator, and ice-machine, with a balcony facing the check-in area of the hotel. White Noise might be able to help.

"With White Noise Lite, you can select from a variety of different background noises designed to drown out other noises and lull you into blissful sleep, so you'll be at peak performance for that intensive Cisco Certification course tomorrow."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Home screen nirvana

"In my opinion, the real strength of Android is in the user customizable nature of the OS, including Widgets.

"Here you see a slightly obscured screen-capture of my Android home screen. The Weather Channel app in the corner tells me if I should bring an umbrella today or not. The Digital Clock widget displays time and date. Beneath it is a picture frame.

"Next to those are a 1touch folder and an internal memory use widget. The 1touch has a collection of icons that do what they say – perform a 1touch dial of my most frequently called numbers. The memory widget reminds me that I can't wait for Froyo to allow app developers to install their programs to the SD card, instead of the limited internal memory of my phone.

Weather Channel widget

"One touch on the Weather Channel widget brings up the local information. I can drill down to radar, maps, weather alerts, hourly-, 36 hour-, 10 day forecasts, and more."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Twitter widget

"Here is the Twitter Widget official app. It displays the single most recent tweet from those you follow. Click on the widget to open up the full Twitter app."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Twitter app

"Here is the Twitter app home screen. I used Twidget Lite, a competitor Android app, for a long time - even after Twitter finally released their Android app. Then Twidget stopped working, so I switched to the official Twitter app.

"Anyhow, it really is the most full featured Twitter app on Android, and it's actually more intuitive and powerful than the Twitter web site. I've had more Jason Hiner, Twitter A-Ha moments using this app than in using Twitter with other apps for an entire year previous to switching to this app."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

Twitter app feed

"Here is my expanded tweet field."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

SwiftKey Beta

"Finally, as anyone who has used an iOS device and an Android device will tell you, the Android default virtual keyboard isn't very good. Fortunately, because you have an Android, you can pick from a variety of other keyboards, and you're not limited to doing it only the way Google thinks you should. In this case, it means finding a keyboard that is close to possible to the virtual keyboard that Apple thinks should be the only choice on their iOS devices.

"This image shows SwiftKey Beta, which is currently a hot alternative Android keyboard I'm trying out. It has predictive technology that scans your SMS messages to determine your writing style, which is supposed to give it uncannily accurate predictive abilities. It walks a much finer line in crossing into Apple's intellectual property than Google seems willing to go, and that's a good thing.

"Unfortunately, Android warns you that apps like this could be collecting your keystrokes, which - along with the way it scans your SMS messages - might turn off some of the more privacy-minded Android users out there."

Facebook

With so many useful and entertaining mobile apps available on the market, we thought we'd ask our editors, contributor writers, and members what apps they prefer above the rest. In this particular gallery, Donovan Colbert (aka dcobert) highlights his favorite Android apps.

According to dcolbert, "Among social utilities, I use Facebook and Foursquare. Everyone should be familiar with Facebook – and frankly, the Android version is poor compared to the iOS version. It isn't updated very frequently and it just doesn’t work very well."

Image credit: Donovan Colbert

About Sonja Thompson

Sonja Thompson started at TechRepublic in October 1999. She is a former Senior Editor at TechRepublic.